Animals require generally the same nutrients as man. For maintenance, growth, reproduction and good health, animals require a diet of carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, and vitamins.
Small amounts of protein are necessary for maintenance of the physical well being of animals, in particular, for repair of muscles, internal organs and other body tissues. High grade protein is usually supplied by eggs, milk, fish meal, meat by-products and soybean meal, which usually contain the correct amounts of essential amino acids. Low quality protein, such as that in corn grain (maize), contains too little of one or more essential amino acids. The quality of the protein in food is of little importance to animals, particularly to ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats and other animals that have four stomachs, because bacteria in the digestive tract of these animals aid in the digestion of food and in using simple nitrogen compounds to build proteins.
Experiments dealing with digestion and balance have measured the degree to which the various components of animal feed are absorbed and retained by the animal body. Protein requirements may be expressed as the amount of digestable protein needed for growth or other body functions. The energy required by animals, as measured as digestable energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy (NE), or total digestable nutrients (TDN).
In accordance with the present invention, it has been discovered that it is possible to increase the digestable protein in silages. The discovery is obviously of economic advantage. Practically, the invention provides to the art a composition for extending the usefulness of any given quantity of silage and feed stock for animals.
The invention is directed to a composition, and its use, for preservation of certain nutritional ingredients, mainly digestive protein, in silages.